Radio România Internațional

Tag: row

  • Radio Romania International Sports club

    Radio Romania International Sports club

    Romania’s national rugby team has had an auspicious start early into the
    international rugby season in 2024. In the first round as part of Rugby Europe Championship, Europe’s
    second-tier competition, Romania’s national rugby squad grabbed a 20-8 away win
    against Poland, in a fixture hosted by the Polish city of Gdynia. Romania’s Damian Strătilă, Alexandru Savin and
    Tevita Manumua scored three tries in the first half. Tudor Boldor converted a
    try in the second half of the game, through a penalty kick. One of Group B’s
    modest teams, Poland put on a performance that was more balanced than expected.
    We recall that in 2023, Romania trounced Poland, 67 to 27. In the most recent
    match, sadly, Romania was unable to score the fourth try, which could have
    brought the team the offensive bonus point.


    It was Romania’s
    first official match with the new management at the helm. The head-coach is the
    French David Gérard, a former second row player, who was selected in the French
    national team’s lineup. As a head-coach, in 2023 David Gerard trained the Portuguese
    national squad, with very good results.


    In Group B’s
    other match, surprisingly enough, Belgium grabbed a 10-6 home win against
    Portugal, the team that until this past Sunday ranked as favorite to winning the
    group. We recall Portugal’s run in the World Cup hosted by France in autumn was
    more than satisfactory, since Portugal defeated Fiji and succeeded a draw
    against Georgia. It now appears all teams stand real chances to win the group.


    In Group
    A, Spain grabbed a 20-18 away win against the Low Countries, while Georgia defeated
    Germany, 28-17, also away from home. The next rounds are schedule in the two coming
    weekends. The semi-finals follow, scheduled over March 2nd and 3rd,
    while the finals are to be played on March 17 in Paris. We recall in 2023, in
    the Rugby Europe Championship, Romania came in 3rd, having defeated
    Spain in the third-place final, 31-25, in Badajoz.


    Romanian
    national rugby team’s next scheduled matches will be played in Bucharest. On February
    10, Romanian goes against Belgium, while on February the 17, Romania faces
    Portugal. For this coming Saturday’s fixture, the national team’s technical
    management has operated five changes in the line-up, as compared to the line-up
    that went against Poland.

  • February 14, 2018 UPDATE

    February 14, 2018 UPDATE

    UPDATE (20.30): DNA ROW – The chief
    prosecutor of the National
    Anti-Corruption Directorate, DNA, Laura Codruta Kovesi,
    on Wednesday evening gave a press
    conference, saying the attack on the institution she runs is meant to subdue
    the State and humiliate Romanian society. She added that the DNA Ploiesti
    prosecutors didn’t give in to the pressure that had been exerted on them.
    Kovesi also gave assurances she will not step down, the more so as, over the
    past few years, the institution she runs got the best results in its history.
    Also on Wednesday, Romanian PM Viorica Dancila said that on Thursday she will
    have a meeting with the Justice Minister, Tudorel Toader, on the latest
    information which emerged in the public space on the DNA. In another move, the
    President of the Higher Council of Magistracy in Romania, Simona Marcu, on Wednesday called on the
    politicians who say that some people must leave their positions following the
    scandal created around the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, DNA, to wait
    for the unfolding of legal mechanisms. Earlier, Interior Minister Carmen
    Dan has called on the DNA chief prosecutor Laura Codruţa Kövesi to revoke the
    detachment of two policemen. They appear in several audio recordings concerning
    the activity of DNA Ploieşti, in the south. Former Social Democratic MP Vlad
    Cosma, sentenced to five years in prison by a court of first instance, claims
    the DNA Ploiesti prosecutors allegedly asked him to plant evidence in a file
    involving former Social Democratic PM Victor Ponta and businessman Sebastian
    Ghiţă, who fled the country to Serbia.


    FLU – The number of deaths caused by the flu virus in Romania has reached 29, the National Institute for Public Health announced on Wednesday. Over 800,000 people have received flu vaccines and doctors urge more people to get vaccinated as the number of flu cases is on the rise. The Health Minister Sorina Pintea says this is not a flu epidemics, and added that prevention measures are of the utmost importance, while public health directorates and hospitals must implement the required measures.


    ECONOMY– Romania’s economy grew by 7% in 2017 as compared with the previous year, which accounts for the highest growth rate in the last 9 years, according to data published by the National Institute for Statistics on Wednesday. In the last quarter of last year, the growth of the GDP slowed down compared to the similar period in 2016 to reach 6.9%, from 8.8% in the third quarter. The annual inflation rate went up in January this year to 4.3% from 3.3% in December last year, as a result of higher food and non-food prices compared with January last year. Experts are worried, however, about the boom of the Romanian economy. France Presse news agency quotes analyst Cristian Paun as saying that Romania, which had the strongest growth rate in Europe thanks to vigorous consumption, is neglecting investment and will have to prepare for difficult consequences. The European Commission has also warned that the main driving engine of economic growth was household consumption as a result of lower taxes and higher salaries and that public investment has dropped for the second year in a row.



    NATO-The Romanian defence minister Mihai Fifor is attending, in Brussels, as of Wednesday, a two-day meeting of his counterparts from other NATO countries. According to a defence ministry release, on the first day, the participants discussed planning and policy for nuclear deterrence. Talks will focus on the modernisation of the Alliance, the adjustment of NATO’s institutional and command structure, European defence and cooperation between NATO and the European Union. Another important issue on the agenda is the NATO members’ allocation of 2% of their GDPs to defence. Prior to the meeting, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said more European defence spending and capabilities can strengthen NATO, but only if the EU’s efforts are a complement and not an alternative to NATO.



    EU BUDGET – The European Commission on Wednesday made public several proposals for the next budget of the community bloc, which include cuts of funds in some domains and tries to identify other sources of income after the departure of Britain. Reuters quotes the European Commissions Budget Commissioner Guenther Oettinger as saying the European Unions next long-term budget should be bigger than the current one despite the departure of major net contributor Britain. The European Commission also claims the disbursement of European funds should be conditioned by the observance of the rule of law by the member states. The alternatives presented by the European Commission will be debated by the EU heads of state and government in a meeting scheduled for February 23. The Commission will make public in May its final proposals for the next budget of the EU, spanning 2021-2027.



    ANTI-CORRUPTION – The former head of the National Integrity Agency, ANI, Horia Georgescu, on Wednesday was sentenced to four years in prison by the Bucharest Court of Appeal, in a file on the damages paid by the National Agency for the Restitution of Property, ANRP. Former MPs Cătălin Theodor Nicolescu and Marko Attila-Gabor (on an APB) have been sentenced in the same file to 9 and 5 years in prison, respectively. 12 people are involved in this file.

    PSD -The National Executive Committee of the Social Democratic
    Party, PSD, (the main party in the ruling coalition in Romania) on Wednesday
    decided to organise an extraordinary congress, PM Viorica Dăncilă has
    announced. In turn, the party president, Liviu Dragnea, who is also the Speaker
    of the Chamber of Deputies, has said that approximately 30 state secretaries
    supported by the party will be replaced, for several reasons.



    MIGRANTS – Almost 5,000 people submitted asylum applications in Romania last year, more than double compared with 2016. Of them, more than 1,300 qualified for refugee status or subsidiary protection and another 1,500 people benefited from other forms of protection and were signed up for integration programmes. 174 foreign nationals were relocated from Greece and Italy and 43 Syrian refugees arrived in Romania as part of the extra-EU relocation scheme. Most asylum applicants come from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.



    LITERARY PRIZE– The Romanian writer Mircea Cartarescu wins the Thomas Mann prize for literature in 2018, one of the most prestigious German literary prizes. The 25,000-euro prize is granted jointly by the city of Lübeck and the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts and will be handed on the 17th of November. According to the jury, in the past four decades, Mircea Cartarescu has become the most important voice in Romanian literature, first through his poetry, then through his novels, short stories and essays, while his unusual, polyphonic romantic trilogy Blinding earned him a place in world literature. Cartarescu is the recipient of many national and international prizes, including the Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding in 2015. His work is available in German, English, Italian, French, Spanish, Polish, Swedish, Bulgarian and Hungarian.

  • January 5, 2016

    January 5, 2016

    Although temperatures are slightly increasing, the weather remains very cold for this time of the year in Romania. Snowfalls are still reported in the south-east and north-west. The highs range between minus 8 and 5 degrees Celsius, with a minus 6 degree reading in Bucharest at noon. Over the past few days, 3 people died because of the biting cold, and 42 others have been rescued by the authorities. Road, railway and air transport is disrupted by the snow and wind.



    Bulgaria, Romanias southern neighbour, announced a code yellow alert against snow, black ice and strong wind, valid today in several parts of the country, the Romanian Foreign Ministry announced. Romanian citizens who travel or intend to travel to Bulgaria are urged to have their vehicles properly equipped and to check the latest news in this respect. The Foreign Ministry previously warned Romanian tourists that a similar alert was in place in Bosnia-Herzegovina.



    The importance of guaranteeing the freedom of the press is vital to any democratic country, particularly in a EU member state, said the Liberal Deputy Ionuţ Stroe, the head of Romanias delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In a statement to Radio Romania, he described as disquieting the fact that a law drafted by the new Conservative power in Poland, under which the directors of the public radio and television stations are to be appointed by the finance minister, was passed by the Parliament in Warsaw without public debate. On Monday, 4 international media freedom watchdogs filed a complaint in this respect with the Council of Europe. They criticise the law as threatening the independence of public media. The authors of the protest urge the Polish Conservative party “Law and Justice to immediately scrap this law, which is pending for promulgation by President Andrzej Duda, from the same party.



    Copenhagen announced temporary controls on its German border, shortly after Sweden had taken similar measures at its border with Denmark. The Danish PM Lars Lokke Rasmussen warned that unless the EU manages to protect its borders, several countries will have to tighten security checks. He explained that, following the restrictions imposed by Sweden, Denmark might be faced with a large number of illegal immigrants. In turn, the Swedish authorities claim that they are trying to reduce the number of refugees reaching their country. Last year, 160,000 people applied for asylum in Sweden, the largest number in Europe after Germany. Denmark and Sweden are the last states to introduce border checks in the Schengen zone. In September 2015, Germany introduced controls on its Austrian border, and last week Norway, which is not an EU member but is part of the visa-free area, announced that travelers without a visa would be denied access to the country.



    The leaders of the Moldovan pro-Western Liberal and Democratic parties, announced they would hold new talks in order to form a new parliamentary majority and a new government. The announcement comes after on Monday the prime minister designate, Ion Sturza, failed to get the votes of a sufficient number of MPs in the Moldovan Parliament, more than half of whose members were absent from the session. The Parliament Speaker, Adrian Candu, said that the vote is failed according to the Constitutional Court rules, and the head of state Nicolae Timofti is now to nominate a new candidate for the PM seat. Should the new attempt fail as well, Timofti must dissolve the Parliament and announce early elections. The previous cabinet, headed by the Liberal-Democrat Valeriu Streleţ, was dismissed on October 29, following a no-confidence motion tabled by the pro-Russian Communists and Socialists, but backed by the Democratic Party as well.



    The UN Security Council strongly criticized the attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, and Saudi Arabia suspended diplomatic ties with Iran after its embassy in Tehran was stormed and set alight by violent protesters, disgruntled with the execution of Shia Muslim cleric Nimr Baaqer al-Nimr by Riyadh. As tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran escalate, Russia expressed willingness to host negotiations between the two foreign ministers. In turn, the EU and USA call for calm following the row between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran.



    The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, number 2 in the world, has withdrawn from the Brisbane tournament in Australia, having nearly 900,000 US dollars in prize money, and so did the current trophy holder, no. 4 WTA Maria Sharapova of Russia. Simona said that, in spite of the problem with her left leg, she would take part in the Sydney tournament next week. Two other Romanian players, Andreea Mitu and Patricia Maria Ţig, have qualified in the doubles quarter-finals of the Shenzhen tournament in China, which has 500,000 US dollars in prize money. In the first round, they defeated Zarina Dias / Ling Zhang (Kazakhstan/China), 6-2, 6-4.